A blog on crisis communications best practices, emergency information and social media in emergency management ... an open forum for exchanging ideas and experience on emergency info and SMEM..
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED WITHIN ARE MINE AND DO NOT REPRESENT OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT POLICY OR THE VIEWS OF MY EMPLOYER.

move at the speed of your audiences (social networks) ... or you'll be irrelevant

use the tools your audiences (mobile devices) ... or you won't be heard ...

Pretty simple stuff really but much harder to actually implement in any large organization, particularly in the public sector. The key reason: approvals and delegation of authority.

I believe we can take some measure of encouragement by the fact that most public entities now realize the need to communicate as fast as possible when an incident impacts its constituents ... but even with the best intentions, that can still take a couple of hours ... Well, in the era of real-time. that's waaaaaaaaay too long!

There are many lessons to be learned from the agility, preparedness to react, social listening skills displayed by the private sector during the Superbowl. Seizing the opportunity shouldn't just be the purview of marketing professionals.

The people responsible for Applebee's social media accounts have made so many mistakes it's a study in ineptitude and could almost be seen as deliberate in its disregard for the intelligence of its audiences.

Again, preparedness is the key. Every social network has its own peculiarities, its own communities of users. You MUST know the difference between them. How to post updates on Facebook for example and how to react to comments. How to craft a comment moderation policy well in advance of any crisis ... something that will be solid and not seem improvised and poorly executed.

Some key points:

identify in advance which social networks you'll use for different types of crises and responses

determine how you'll craft and disseminate your messaging

train your people in responding to online criticism

for God's Sake ... don't do it in the middle of the night !

don't take your audiences for idiots

Enough said ... I know that chances are I'll be eating Oreos rather than having a meal at Applebee's ... bottom line is that a lot of people are thinking just like me ... and that's going to hurt the restaurant chain's bottom line !